Monday, January 01, 2007

Game 16 Thoughts

despite some odd losses and a mid-season collapse after losing their QB, the philadelphia eagles rallied to a 10-6 finish and are NFC east champs for the 5th time in 6 years. they enter the playoffs as the 3rd seed, but arguably the team to beat in the NFC as all the other contenders are limping into the playoffs or full-on collapsing while the birds seem to be peaking at the right time.

- nice game by AJ. the eagles have three QBs who can all play. what a nice change. considering that AJ played better than garcia has at any point this season, i wonder if the morning idiot is going to blather about how AJ is also better than mcnabb.

- the eagles second team with the 3rd QB outplayed the falcons first team with both the 1st and 2nd QBs. it can only help to give them more confidence heading into the playoffs.

- sean considine needs to invest in some stickum. he went 1-4 on eminently pick-able balls yesterday. sometimes he looks like he belongs (tackling vick in the open field in the first half), sometimes he looks lost and awful (taking the wrong angle on a later vick scramble, dropping all those picks). i hope he gains some weight in the offseason.

- hope buckhalter's injury isn't serious. while i don't think the birds will miss him much on the field -- moats is more talented and it's not like buckhalter is a great blocker -- i'll always have a soft spot for him since he's been through so much with his knees.

- as much as we all have our complaints about big red (me included), the bottom line is that the guy wins. with a star QB or without a star QB, with his players or ray rhodes' players, the guy knows what he's doing.

- i think this season puts dawk into the HOF.

i hope everyone is ready for a good playoff run. i don't see another team in the NFC who the eagles can't beat convincingly. not to say the birds can't lose to any of them, because they can, but seriously, except for NO (who they'd play on the road) i'd probably make the birds the favorite against every other team in the NFC.

the only unfortunate thing is that the birds draw the giants in the first game. of all the teams in the playoffs, the giants continue to be the team that i think matches up with the eagles the best. the eagles should win, but it's a bit of a scary game.

12 Comments:

Anonymous said...

Agreed. You would think that b/c we beat the Giants twice already this season (yes, 1-1, but we all know what happened) and they appear to me in the middle of a team meltdown, they still make me a little nervous. JJ seems to have his defense playing at their top level, so we need to shut down Tiki Barber and let Eli help us out by trying to be like his brother, while throwing us a slew of picks. I like the game at home, too, although they've definitely shown that they can win on the road. The NFC is unbelivably weak :Dallas - destroyed by Detroit at home while controlling their fate.Seattle - Don't beleive the hype.New Orleans - OK, really good, but we already know we can play with these guys.Chicago - come on now. Anybody see Grossman's line Sunday night. I know the game didn't mean anything, but these guys are a fraud. Their special teams worry me more than their offense or D.Giants - see above, we'll find out Sunday.Eagles - playing better than any team in the conference except N.O. Clicking on all cylinders, no new injuries to major contributors, although I share mean guys feelings towards Buck.I love this time of year in football, I look forward to the next three weekends like no other season in any other sport. I look forward to many interesting discussions along the way!!

Stop the hatin'! I find it odd that Mean Guy takes a swipe at Garcia in every single post, not only discussing how he "almost" threw a bunch of picks that he never threw, but generally picking apart eveyr phase of the guy's performance. Relax Mean Guy, he isn't going to oust your beloved McNabb. The guy is what he is, a good backup option. He is no longer a starter, but he played well and won three road divisional games in December. He didn't make bad mistakes, he injected some fire into a moribund offense, and he threw a nice ball that the WR could catch. Your frustration with Cataldi and Rhea should not come out so violently on Garcia. The guy worked and played hard and got us the division and a home playoff game. That desrves more recognition than the disrespect he gets here every post. At some point, when the season is over and we can fully reflect, I hope that people start recognizing him for what he did and meant to the team. He is not McNabb, he is not a threat to McNabb's job, but he won consistently and kept the team playing at a high level each week, something McNabb frankly didn't do through 9 games. I love 5 as much as the next guy, but he is not and will never be perfect. Nor is Garcia. Can we just bask a little in a nice comeback story and hope the Birds sign him as their backup for a few more years. I sure as hell feel safe with him caretaking the offense to avcid having to rush McNabb back before that hidesous injury allows. We don't need Culpepper on our hands.

P.S. The Giants scare the shit out of me. I was at that debacle in week 2, it left scars. That team has weapons. A turd coach and a scared puppy QB, but fire power all over on offense. They have to stuff Tiki again and make 10 beat them. He did it once in week 2 and failed in week 14. Let's hope we get his latter year performance. This will absolutely be their toughest test on the road to a Superbowl. I hate to play someone 3 times in a season.

Stop the hatin'! I find it odd that Mean Guy takes a swipe at Garcia in every single post

mentioning that AJ played pretty damn well is hatin' on garcia? i'll grant you that cataldi irritates the heck out of me, but my point here is not to ding garcia, rather it is that the team started playing better and garcia was part of it but not the cause of it. AJ with the backups didn't skip a beat.

not only discussing how he "almost" threw a bunch of picks that he never threw

since sean considine dropped 3 of the 4 picks that hit him in the hands yesterday, should the atlanta QBs who threw the balls be absolved? if i was blogging for the falcons, i'd be mentioning those "almost" picks.

Relax Mean Guy, he isn't going to oust your beloved McNabb.

i don't love mcnabb because i don't like his personality, however, i do want my team to win and he is the best QB on the roster. garcia is never going to oust mcnabb, i have no fear of that so i have no reason to "hate on" garcia. what i am trying to do is the same thing that parcells is doing with romo. if anything, there is too much love for garcia right now. i'm just trying to present the other side to even things out and calm people down.

The guy is what he is, a good backup option. He is no longer a starter, but he played well and won three road divisional games in December.

i agree and have said the same thing several times.

desrves more recognition than the disrespect he gets here every post.

what disrespect? i love garcia for how he's rallied the team, but he's not perfect. heck, dawkins is probably my favorite player on the team, and i'm constantly noticing how he's a step slower than he used to be. just because i notice some mistakes doesn't mean i'm disrepecting him.

After reflecting a little on Sunday's game, I think we all need to give a huge shout out to the coaching staff. Their ability to prepare the ENTIRE team for Sunday's game allowed the backups to come in and win a game they shouldn't have. I don't care how much ATL tanked the game. Also, despite a couple bad penalties, the o-line played incredible with 5 players all out of position. I can't imagine how hard it must have been for Herremans and Andrews to prepare all week to play G and then move to tackle in the span of 1 series.

Overall, the MG is very fair in his assessment of Jeff Garcia, I think. However, it's hard not to see what Bumble is talking about either. I also sense more "qualified" love for Garcia than I do for McNabb in spots, but what the hell, we all have our favorites.

Here's what the Mean Guy has had to say. Judge for yourselves:

Game 12

"jeff garcia played really well. he took some big hits, stayed tough in the pocket when he needed too, and scrambled when he needed to. he did make a couple of bad decisions that he got away with when the defense dropped the ball, but he also made some clutch downfield throws when the game was on the line."

Game 13

"garcia played ok, but he got away with 2 picks again. mcnabb would be getting creamed on air and in the press."

Game 14

"garcia continues to manage the game well. he's making mistakes but when he does they're either not killing the team or the defense is dropping the ball. it's nice having a professional backup QB able to play at a decent level. i keep waiting for the garcia who i saw in cleveland and detroit to show up, but as it turns out, it seems like that was more a reflection of those teams than garcia himself. nice work by jeff."

Game 15

" it continues to amaze me how coaches and scouts focus so much on arm strength. garcia looked pretty bad as a brown and a lion and all the reports said it was because he lost some arm strength. his arm seems strong enough to get the job done to me.

- garcia's big mistake of the day came in the middle of a series of huge momentum swings that played a big part in the outcome of the game -- dallas fumble, garcia interception, goal line stand. i'm a big believer in the analyses that show that coaches should go for it a lot more often than they do, but those analyses don't (or can't) take the emotional impact of a failed attempt as much as they should. the cowboys lost a lot of confidence after they failed to score on that 4th and goal, and it greatly impacted the outcome of this game."

Game 16

"nice game by AJ. the eagles have three QBs who can all play. what a nice change. considering that AJ played better than garcia has at any point this season, i wonder if the morning idiot is going to blather about how AJ is also better than mcnabb."

It would be interesting to see a comparison of QB statistics for Donovan, Garcia & AJ. Personally, I couldn't care less what the stats say because Donovan is my guy. But it is rather eye opening that the team has performed so well of late. It goes to show (I think) that while the QB may be the most important position (by far), this is still a team game. Would Tom Brady be the best QB in the league if he played for Detroit? Maybe, but I doubt anybody would notice.

Conversely, how good would Randall have been with an offensive line like the one Donovan and Garcia enjoy today?

In my opinion, Randall was WAY better than my current favorite Eagle, Donovan. Just a thought. Extrapolating just a bit, is it impossible to believe that Steve Jeltz would be a Hall of Famer if he played SS for the Yankees all those years instead of Jeter?

Randall probably would have won a Super Bowl if he had this line, recievers and backfield....that is if he still had that defense. And that is a big "if". The only guy that I may take from that offense is Keith Jackson. Randall was the whole focus of that offense....whoever annoints Buddy better than Andy is smoking crack. The only thing and I mean only thing that Buddy did better was evaluate defensive talent. Christ, Bud Carson had them playing at an even higher level on defense. Randall, however, had a bizarre personality akin to Michael Jackson...remember his mantras every year....let me be me....back scrambling....what a yutz. I think the one big difference between Don and Randall is Randall was okay with making plays anyway that he could, which including running and bombing away, while Don wants to be remembered as a great pocket QB. It's not his strength and I wish he would accept that. Not a weakness, I just wish he played like he did at Syracuse more. Don is definitely more likable, too...and Don is our #1 QB no questions asked...although it's nice to see success with his back-ups. I have seen a mock draft for next year and either ESPN or Fox had the Birds drafting Brian Brohm #1....whoa nellie, I hope that doesn't happen....Troy Smith wasn't even take prior to the Birds picking, either.

imo, randall was clearly the more physically gifted player -- faster, taller, stronger arm. however, i also think that the biggest reason he never won a SB has less to do with his o-line and more to do with what was between his ears and his work ethic.

ray didinger has a story about how randall wouldn't/couldn't watch film or study. at one point, randall promised the QB coach that he'd watch film that day so they could discuss the next day. they were still using rolls of film back then, so the coach stuck a piece of paper in the roll to check up on him.

the next day comes, the paper is still in the film. when the coach went to him to ask if he watched the film, randall said "yeah, it was great, coach, i'll talk to you later."

mcnabb is no braniac, but he puts in the time and he works on his game. the play against dallas where he predicted the exact cowboy blitz and changed the play in the huddle to enable baskett to score on a long TD is an example of the biggest reason why mcnabb is a better QB than randall was.

I have to admit, the Rizzuto comparison crossed my mind when I initially brought up Jeter, but there's no friggin' way Scooter can look good playing air guitar to Man in the Mirror. On that basis alone, it's a horsebleep comparison. I think Jet had a shot at the HOL playing for the Yankees even if the Hall hadn't cheapened itself by admitting Rizutto. This smacks of more "qualified" love from the MG...